Esperanza Peace & Justice Center

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Index of Esperanza v. City of San Antonio

City Attorney Rescinds Policy Against Funding for Complainers
City Council Fails to Implement the Change

PRESS RELEASE
Friday, September 18, 1998

CONTACT:
Amy Kastely, attorney, page 210.349.4594
Graciela Sanchez, executive director 210.228.0201

In response to the Esperanza Center's motion in federal court, the City Attorney last night rescinded a previously announced policy against funding for groups who have "an adversarial relationship" with the City. For the first time in this controversy, the City Attorney conceded that the City must respect the constitutional rights of applicants for City funding, including the right to file a lawsuit, to free speech, and to unbiased application of the law. Unfortunately, the City Council did not implement the City Attorney's announcement.

On August 4, in immediate response to the Esperanza Center's lawsuit against the City, City Attorney Frank Garza announced that the City would not fund any organization that had filed litigation against the City. On September 2, Assistant City Attorney Tom Bailey advised the Cultural Arts Board that no group with litigation pending against the city could receive arts funding. In response to this recommendation, the Cultural Arts Board rescinded its previous recommendation that the Esperanza Center receive operational and project support for its PazARTE programming, which includes mujercanto, featuring women's performance, music, song, and thought; Visiones de Esperanza which trains inner-city youth to tell their stories in print and video; MujerArtes, a westside community arts economic empowerment project in which low-income women develop their artistic skills and produce pottery for sale; Platicas, a community forum for writers and speakers to address current issues; the Other America Film Festival, presenting films about diverse communities and issues throughout the Americas; and Exhibiciones Activas, a series of art exhibits featuring art with social justice themes.

On August 9, the Esperanza Center filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the rule announced by the City Attorney, on the ground that the rule constituted retaliation against exercise of the First Amendment right to petition the government for redress of grievances. In a dramatic announcement during last night's City Council meeting, City Attorney Frank Garza rescinded the announced policy, instructing the Council that "filing a lawsuit by a delegate agency against the city cannot be utilized as the sole factor for denying someone arts funding." Following this announcement, however, the City Council voted to approve the proposed city budget without further discussion of the Esperanza, leaving people to wonder whether to believe what the City says or what the City does.

"It's very important that the gente of San Antonio understand that they have a right to demand respect from their government, and to hold that government accountable for the decisions it makes," Graciela Sanchez, executive director of the Esperanza Center, said.

"We applaud recision of the rule," Amy Kastely, attorney for the plaintiffs, said. "And we call upon the City to publicize its recision of the rule as widely as it publicized the existence of the rule."

"We congratulate the City for rescinding its rule disqualifying groups involved in litigation," said Rodolfo Rosales, Esperanza board member. "That rule impacted every person and organization in San Antonio, and it was especially intimidating to groups who historically have not received equal services and respect from the City and do not have the resources to stand up against retaliation by the City."

The City Council did not publicly discuss the City Attorney's recision of the rule last night and no Council member moved to restore funding for the Esperanza. In effect, the Council affirmed application of the rule, even after the City Council advised that the rule is unconstitutional. "Once again, the City's own evaluators, who examined each application in depth and evaluated each one according to the criteria approved by City Council (artistic excellence, audience development, and administrative capacity), rated the Esperanza very positively (93.3%) and much higher than many of the agencies who received funding," said Carol Bertsch, attorney for the plaintiffs. "It is disingenuous for the City Council to claim that its free-wheeling allocations, arrived at through backroom deals, bear any relationship to the merit of the applications under the City's stated criteria."

"Esperanza, the Media Project, and VAN will amend the federal court complaint to include claims based on this year's unconstitutional denial of funds" explained Graciela Sanchez, "and the Esperanza will continue its litigation to ensure that arts funding is used to support all cultures in San Antonio, and not just a favored few. Just as we must demand respect and equity in education, street repairs, libraries, and development funds, we must continue to demand respect and equity in arts funding. The mission of the Esperanza is to support art and cultural expression, particularly of marginalized groups, of poor people, of people of color, of lesbians and gays -- it is sad, but not surprising, that these groups lose out in a process that allows prejudice and favoritism to influence Council decisions, and we will continue to work for a more respectful and fair decision-making process."

What do you think? E-mail us at esperanza@esperanzacenter.org.